Mitch wrote to us last week to complain that he was sent a used guitar instead of the new one he ordered. Musician’s Friend and/or Guitar Center (they’re related) followed up with Mitch and corrected the mistake, but it turns out that Mitch was in the wrong on this one. Here’s his explanation for what happened.
Musician's Friend Responds To Guitar Center Shipping Mix-Up
By February 13, 2009
Bob Weibel at Musician’s Friend contacted us only a few hours after we posted Mitch’s story of the used guitar shipping screw up. He writes, “This kind of thing simply can’t happen, ever. We’ve tracked down Mitch’s order information and have been attempting to reach him on the phone to make things right.”
Guitar Center Ships Broken Guitar From Another Store's Inventory, Says Too Bad, Now It's Yours
By February 12, 2009
Did you know Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend, and “a few other online music retailers” all share the same centralized distribution center? That’s the explanation a Musician’s Friend CSR gave Mitch when he tried to solve the mystery of the dented, twisted-neck, not-even-from-the-right-store Fender Telecaster. It looks like Guitar Center shipped him another company’s returned item. That’s bad enough, but now Guitar Center says they won’t make good on his order because it’s beyond the 30 day return period. Hey, Guitar Center: What return period? Mitch never got the product he ordered in the first place.
Update: Musician’s Friend has responded with an apology.
Ticketmaster And Live Nation Agree To Merge
By February 10, 2009
That booming evil laughter you heard echoing across the sky earlier today came from the board room where Live Nation and Ticketmaster agreed to an all-stock merger between their two blighted companies. Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller says the merger will benefit customers, who are frequently “frustrated by their ticket buying experiences.” Oh! So by merging the two companies most responsible for those frustrations, we’ll cancel them out! This is doubleplus good, right?
Ticketmaster, Live Nation Consider Merging, Destroying Concertgoing Forever
By February 4, 2009
The two companies most responsible for making your next live entertainment experience a financial disaster may announce a merger as early as this week, reports Reuters and the WSJ. If it goes ahead, the new company will apparently call itself Live Nation Ticketmaster, not “Satan’s Boxoffice” as one might expect. The merger will raise antitrust issues, but if Sirius/XM has taught us anything, it’s that those issues can be ignored at the expense of consumer choice and pricing.
Confirmed: Sirius Radio Raising Rates March 11
By January 21, 2009
Sirius Radio customer service reps are now telling subscribers that the rumored rate hike is indeed going to happen. This means, at the very least:
Is Sirius XM About To Raise Rates On Its Customers?
By January 20, 2009
Ryan pointed us to an article on Orbitcast about a rumored fee hike by Sirius XM. The increases appear to be for services that aren’t strictly protected by the FCC agreement, which is why they would legally be able to do this despite promises that they wouldn’t raise rates for 36 months after the merger.
Breaking Out In Song Is Now An Acceptable Way To Authorize Visa Purchases
By January 11, 2009
Visa has revealed a darling new feature that will let consumers authorize debit transactions via song. It’s all part of Visa’s revised but always-exciting operating regulation 6.2.A.7.b, which now lets you “choose to sing to authorize a debit transaction.” Don’t worry if the merchant gives you an awkward look, they’re just sheepish about their cruddy singing skills. Sing louder to encourage them to join in the transaction-approving fun! (Thanks to Barbara!)
By January 9, 2009
Remember that Norwegian site that was offering Beatles songs for legal download? Yeah, well, not anymore. It turns out their licensing agreement stipulates that the shows they put online have to have been aired within the past 4 weeks, and all the Beatles shows are from 2007. [Exclaim News] (Thanks to elc81!)
Apple: Give Us Money And We'll Remove DRM From Your Music
By January 7, 2009
Apple has dropped DRM from iTunes — and is offering to remove their DRM from music you already bought for the low, low fee of $0.30 per song.
By January 5, 2009
Want to download every Beatles track ever made, legally? [NRKbeta.no via BoingBoing]
RIAA To Stop Suing File Sharers
By December 19, 2008
The Wall Street Journal and Ars Technica are reporting that the RIAA has announced a fairly dramatic change in its strategy to fight piracy.
Christmas Creep: Radio Stations Are In Full Holiday Mode
By November 10, 2008
If you thought that you could avoid Christmas Creep by staying out of stores — think again. It’s annoying you on the radio as well.
Walmart Decides To Honor DRM-Protected MP3 Purchases After All, At Least For Now
By October 10, 2008
Last month, Walmart announced it was shutting down the DRM side of its online music store, and too bad if you were a customer, because they were also going to turn off the DRM server that authorized your music for playback. Apparently enough customers complained, because they came to their senses—at least for the time being—and decided to keep the server running. Read their email below.
MyPhil Lets New Yorkers 35 And Under Build Affordable Concert Subscriptions
By October 4, 2008
MyPhil from the New York Philharmonic lets anyone 35 or younger build their own concert series for $29 per ticket. Nearly every Philharmonic concert is eligible for purchase, and the cheap tickets don’t land you in the cheap seats.
Pandora, Other Internet Radio Stations May Survive After All
By October 3, 2008
Assuming negotiations succeed, you’ll have your Pandora to listen to after all. On Tuesday, Congress passed the Webcaster Settlement Act, which gives Internet radio stations like Pandora until February 2009 to reach a new royalty agreement with copyright holders; if they meet the deadline, the government will not interfere, which is great news since it was the gov’s Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that set the current market-killing fees in the first place.
